There was no doubt that the establishment of Issthara had greatly benefited every race in The Hinterlands. Merchant caravans from outside brought a steady stream of revenue, allowing all the local races to rake in profits.
What Yu Lin Bloodhawk saw in these reports, however, was that Quel'Danil's grain exports were declining month by month, driving grain prices up rapidly. Weapons and armor, meanwhile, continued to sell as well as ever, with little change in price.
Yu Lin Bloodhawk knew that the rise in Issthara's grain prices was largely caused by reduced harvests on the Seaside Plain, where a sudden, massive loss of manpower had cut agricultural production. The reason prices had not spiraled out of control was not that Quel'Danil had enough stockpiled grain to keep them down, but that the breadfruit trees in Quel'Danil and on the Seaside Plain had begun bearing fruit. This was a contingency Yu Lin Bloodhawk had put in place long ago. The land on either side of every road on the Seaside Plain belonged to the City Lord, and everyone who joined a village group was obliged to plant hybrid breadfruit trees along the roads. In Quel'Danil Mountain Valley in particular, Evil Spikes had begun planting breadfruit trees throughout the valley very, very early on.
Now, after several years of fighting, the Second War was nearing its end. The Kingdom of Stormwind, the last human kingdom whose lands remained lost, would soon be restored, and the contingencies Yu Lin Bloodhawk had put in place so long ago were beginning to pay off. The food produced by breadfruit trees planted in Quel'Danil Mountain Valley and on the Seaside Plain was making up for the reduced yields from the plain's fertile fields, caused by the sudden loss of so many workers. This was plainly reflected